A 16-Year-Old Was Allegedly Framed by Police Eager for Perfect Arrest Statistics

According to a new federal indictment, when Biscayne Park Police wanted to maintain their perfect crime stats for burglary arrests, they allegedly found a way to fudge the numbers: arrest a 16-year-old for unsolved burglaries. The Miami-area department arrested the minor in 2013 for four separate burglaries, according to ABC News — only, there was allegedly no evidence the teen actually did it.

This is all according to an indictment filed by federal prosecutors. The prosecutors charged Monday that former Biscayne Park Police chief Raimundo Atesiano instructed full-time office Charlie Dayoub and reserve officer Raul Fernandez to carry out the arrest of the minor, referred to in the indictment by only the initials T.D. Prosecutors claim the police arrested T.D. without any evidence tying him to the crimes. Both the arrest and the charges leveled against T.D. are thus considered false and unlawful.

The ex-police chief and two officers allegedly conspired over their impropriety, as well. The indictment claims that Dayoub signed affidavits that Fernandez wrote and notarized with “false narratives,” according to The Washington Post.

After T.D.’s arrest, Atesiano touted a 100% clearance rate on burglaries, meaning every burglary case the police department came across had been solved — a perfect record. But according to the new federal indictment against the cops, Atesiano manipulated the numbers to cull favor with elected officials.

Despite his efforts to sacrifice a teen’s freedom and innocence for the sake of his job performance statistics, Atesiano resigned abruptly in 2014. According to The Miami Herald, it was discovered later that Atesiano had borrowed thousands of dollars from “an underling” and promised to pay it back “through a combination of taxpayer-funded overtime and off-duty work.”

This misdeed aside, it took five years to uncover Atesiano’s burglary deception; the investigation included FBI participation, which village manager Krishan Manners said the village cooperated in. He disparaged the misconduct, telling The Miami Herald, "This was five years ago. We have a different manager and a different police chief."

Now, all three of the men have been charged with conspiracy to violate civil rights as well as depriving T.D. of his civil rights. Their convictions could result in prison sentences of 11 years.